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Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Top Ten Tuesday - Favorite Books On Mental Illness

This is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. They feature a different top ten list every week. This week's topic is a freebie of sorts. Today, I am posting books that everyone who wants to know more about mental illness needs to read.1. Paperweight by Meg Haston - A very emotional book about a girl suffering from an eating disorder. Best part: NO ROMANCE!!

2. All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven - Violet is suffering from depression and Finch is suffering from a mental illness as well (no spoilers). I was a sobbing mess at the end of this book.

3. Underwater by Marisa Reichardt - A story about a girl suffering from agoraphobia. I had a few issues with the ending, but it was still a very unique story.

4. Made You Up by Francesca Zappia - Alex suffers from Schizophrenia. Such an engrossing book. The author did a great job with the symptoms of this one.

5. Your Voice Is All I Hear by Leah Scheier - Jonah suffers from Schizophrenia. One of the things this author did really well was to challenge all the stigmatizations that people with this disease can endure from other people.

6. Damsel Distressed by Kelsey Macke - Imogen suffers from depression and binge eating disorder. She also cuts herself. This author did an amazing job with the symptoms that Imogen was feeling. Such a powerful story.

7. Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone - The main character in this book suffers from OCD.

8. The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand - Lexie is the main character, but her brother (who killed himself) is actually the one who was suffering from severe depression. The whole book was about his illness and the fact that no one saw any signs he was contemplating depression.

9. Alice and the Fly by James Rice - This book is narrated by Greg, who has Schizophrenia. Greg is the most unreliable narrator ever and it was incredible to be inside the head of someone suffering from this disease. And by incredible, I mean devastating.

10. I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios - Josh is suffering from PTSD after returning from Afghanistan. We need more books about this issue! This one was a great start though.

11. Dancing On Broken Glass by Ka Hancock - I added this one as a bonus because I read it way before I started this blog and I don't talk about it that much. That is such a shame because I loved it so much! A moving story about a woman with a devastating family history of cancer and a man who suffers from Bipolar disorder. They are married and make the difficult decision to never have children because of their histories. Naturally, she gets pregnant. This book made me cry so hard, especially when reading about all of the times he has to be put in an institution due to his disease.

I am so ashamed I haven't read any of these!!! I do own Made You Up, I'll Meet You There, Damsel Distressed, Every Last Word and All the Bright Places so I will be getting to them for sure. The others I am pretty sire are on my TBR. Great list!

Great list and I've read NONE of them. I really want to read Paperweight and I'll Meet You There soon though. I'd highly recommend this one - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17283510-leave-of-absence

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman! Otherwise you got all my favorites (Made You Up, Every Last Word, I'll Meet You There, and All The Bright Places), and I am adding the other books to my TBR list, as they all sound fantastic. Oh--The Impossible Knife of Memory features PTSD also, but it's the MC's father who has it. Laurie Halse Anderson also wrote Wintergirls, which addresses anorexia. Oooh, and Reality Boy and Everybody Sees the Ants, both by A. S. King involve some mental illness stuff too. Great topic and list!

Wendy, I have not read Challenger Deep yet, but it is on my TBR! I have heard such great things about it! And thanks so much for all the great recommendations. I will definitely check those out. I am really interested in Wintergirls. I love Laurie Halse Anderson, but I haven't read that one yet.

Great list! I haven't read anything on this list and I definitely have been looking for more books about mental illness. I will be adding a few of these to my TBR! Here's my TTT is which I give recommendations for anyone that is interested in manga or comics. My TTT

Cool list. Have you tried He Wanted the Moon by Mimi Baird? It's actually non-fiction... but well... stranger than fiction! I really liked that book because no matter the amount of books I have read on this topic, the real issues scared the crap out of me. It's a historical non fiction... the main dude was institutionalized way back in the 1940s. So yeah... the DARK ages, so to speak. I have a review here, in case you were interested: He Wanted the Moon Book Review on A Simple Digest

These are great choices! I loved pretty much all of these that I read (which is most of them actually!). I also think Don't Touch and Challenger Deep are great mental health books! The only one of these that I am always on the fence about (and not even as a book, just as a mental health book) is Every Last Word- just because the end part didn't quite "fit" for me. But I could just be being picky ;) Great list!

Shannon, I STILL haven't read Don't Touch and Challenger Deep, but they are both on my TBR! I do get your issue with Every Last Word because I think I had the same issue. But other than the weird ending, I thought it was great so I had to include it. :)

Omg I didn't know Your Voice Is All I Hear was about mental illness...*dashes for goodreads* I LOVED Alice and the Fly...and by "loved" I mean, it was kind of terrifying. XD And All The Bright Places actually reduced me to a snivelling wreck. <3 I wasn't a fan of Underwater though...gah, *hides* It was a bit problematic for me, eek. Oh oh, I really love Challenger Deep! It has no romance either (phew) and deals with schizophrenia.

Cait, yes you must read Your voice is all I hear! Jonah's GF got on my nerves, but it made me tear up so much to read about Jonah's experience. And the whole stigmatization thing was awful, but very realistic (unfortunately). I do understand your issue with Underwater. I did have an issue at the end, but for the most part I thought it was well done, so I had to include it. I have STILL not read Challenger Deep, but I need to! And I adore books that are about mental illness, but don't have romance. They are so rare!

I'm glad you chose this topic - such a great one! I've read about half of these, so I definitely need to read the others now too! LOVe Damsel Distressed - I don't think that book gets enough attention.